“The Oxford English Dictionary defines a seed as “The unit of reproduction of a flowering plant, capable of developing into another such plant” another meaning of the word is “the cause or latent beginning of a feeling, process, or condition.” Sarah Rayner’s latest work in porcelain encompasses both these meanings. Delicate, pure white porcelain pods defy the term handbuilt yet that is how they are formed. Shaped like pods, seeds, twigs and stamens these sculptures morph from familiar to deeply strange as the viewer is drawn through the groups of objects. The satin, white terra sigillata surface highlights the tiny pinholes covering the outside of the pods. Viewed individually the sculptures reveal hidden details, tiny, beautiful clefts and crevices, a speckling of fine pinholes, interior cavities filled with miniscule, porcelain balls. Grouped, the sculptures draw you in, pulling you from one mysterious object to the next, capturing the sense of wonder and discovery found in beach combing or foraging.

The title of this work Gynoecium refers to the female reproductive organs of plants and this where the inspiration for this body of work begins. Starting from her local environment of sclerophyll gum forest Sarah spends hours bushwalking, collecting and examining the clever methods that plants have evolved to attract pollinators. By enlarging the microscopic world of plant reproduction Sarah brings and anthropomorphic quality to these pods, the clefts and crevices of the plant world opening, exposing and revealing sensuous interior places invoking bodily references. Observations like the way leaves connect to stems or how an outer layer peels back to reveal a fruiting body are pared back to the essential forms and combined in ways that are never found in nature. As a result of this careful observation that there is no disassociation between all the elements so the sculptures seem familiar and believable yet totally strange and alien. This mimics the experience of looking at the world through a microscope; familiar things reveal a hidden world inside them. Rayner says of this work “Many layers of musing are stored inside these little objects, sometimes they are sealed up and other times little bits are revealed.”

Sarah’s workspace is rich in detail, her desk holds tiny specimen jars of dried organic matter, a microscope, entomology pins, a stuffed quail, books on plants, old botanical postcards, bones, half finished porcelain pods and a cup of tea. Fragments of garden are reflected in ½ a dozen art deco mirrors hanging on the wall behind the desk and 1940’s mannequin heads peer down from the top shelves. Unfinished pods repose in trays covered in damp cloth on a Victorian iron bed covered in a pristine white lace bedspread. This is a crazy room, and captures the whimsical, bowerbird creativity that led Sarah on the meandering path from textile studies through to designing clothing, and handbags, to creating beautiful native gardens, and now to porcelain sculpture. The pods and organic forms of Gynoecium are a distillation and metaphor for this rich, textured, environment. A pod or a seed is merely a casing for the DNA of an entire plant, Sarah’s environment works in the opposite way, the abundant, exuberant, polymath gathering of inspirational materials provides a rich hummus from which the, elementary forms spring, containing a world of ideas within their porcelain shells.

Rayner spends hours pinching, rolling and refining the abstract pods, stamens seeds and petals of her work Gynoecium.  Material enquiry has formed a constant thread throughout Sarah’s career, starting with a degree majoring in textiles and printmaking in the 1990’s. There has been a constant emphasis on making, and ingenious, meticulous construction through all of Rayner’s work. Curiosity has led her to research subjects as diverse as historical textiles, botanical dissections of plant’s reproduction, taxonomy, skeletal systems, embroidery and construction methods used in 1940’s haute couture. This curiosity is evident in the skills Sarah brings to porcelain, fitting elements of clay together in a way that is reminiscent of pattern making, with an eye for detail, and the precise finishing of edges. The melding of material skills associated with feminine history and clay creates a tension, alerting the viewer to the dependencies between culture, and civilisation and the fragile flora in our eco-system.

Rayner is an artist working within a post conceptual era. Her medium for now is clay but she is not limited through her skills or her conceptual themes. The material qualities of clay hold a deep fascination for her. Porcelain has it’s own historical and cultural references to drawing rooms, aristocracy, purity and luxury that Rayner uses to draw attention to the environmental themes her work engages with. The earthiness of plants, the interconnected eco system, hummus, decay and the cycle of life are distilled and accentuated by the cool, clean porcelain forms with their delicate pleats and clefts. The medium is appropriate to the subject and hints of where Rayner’s work might go into the future appear in the use of other materials such as entomological pins, thorns and her use of museological display. This is an artist with boundless curiosity and a passion for the beauty and vulnerability of all living things.”

Hidden Worlds essay written by Shannon Garson for Flowerbones catalogue.

Photography: Carl Warner and Greg Piper.